80 postal employees pledge their eyes
Malleshwaram Mukhya Dak Ghar employees on Tuesday vowed to spread awareness on eye donation in their respective jurisdictions.
It was a rare sight at the Malleshwaram Mukhya Dak Ghar on Tuesday. All the 80 employees turned up at the office an hour before their duty hours. And it was for a cause.
Signing up to pledge their eyes at an awareness programme on Tuesday, all the 80 employees of Malleshwaram Post Office also vowed to carry the message of eye donation and its importance to every household in their respective jurisdiction.
The programme was organised by Narayana Nethralaya in coordination with the Eye Bank Association of India and Dr. Rajkumar Eye Bank to mark the 30th eye donation fortnight that was observed from August 25 to September 8. K. Bhujang Shetty, chairperson of Narayana Nethralaya, said nearly two million are waiting for corneal transplants in India, while only about 50,000 corneal donations are made in the country. Dr. Shetty said the hospital had got 1,372 eye donations in 2014.
The hospital has now started sensitising people to encourage people in their neighbourhoods to donate eyes by becoming grief counsellors. “We have realised that just getting people to pledge eyes is not enough as the families of people, who pledge their eyes, need to inform the hospital soon after the death of the person concerned if donation has to become possible,”he said.
Source http://m.thehindu.com/
